By IANS,
New Delhi : Incensed by Norway’s move to extend residence permits of two Indian children under foster care, India Thursday said it would make “all out” efforts to ensure their early return and stressed that they must be given the opportunity to come to their country.
“We will make all out efforts to achieve the goal of getting back the children to India where they belong,” External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said.
“It is government of India’s firm commitment that the children must be given the opportunity to come to India.”
He was responding to a question on reports that Norwegian officials were trying to keep the children — one-year-old Aishwarya and three-year-old Abhigyan — there after their visas expire next month. The Norwegian authorities have on their own applied for a visa extension.
The external affairs ministry Wednesday had reacted sharply to the attempt by Norwegian authorities to keep the children there after expiry of their visa, saying the kids were neither “orphans nor stateless persons”, and enjoyed “protection” of the Indian state.
Syed Akbaruddin, the external affairs ministry spokesperson, said India was made aware of the fact that the Norwegian authorities were seeking to extend the residence permits of the two children.
He stressed that any request for extension of residence permit on behalf of the children should “emanate from either the parents or the Indian state”.
Abhigyan and Aishwarya, children of Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya, an NRI couple living in Stavanger, Norway, were taken under protective care by Barnevarne (Norwegian Child Welfare Services) in May last year on grounds that they were not looked after properly by their parents.
An agreement was struck nearly a month ago between India and Norway under which the parents named Anurup’s brother Arunabhash Bhattacharya as the primary caretaker of the two children.
Arunabhash is currently in Norway and is being looked after the Norwegian authorities. The children’s Kolkata-based uncle is currently in Oslo.